Francis De Luca, who formerly ran
Americans for Prosperity North Caro-
lina. Though Civitas is ostensibly non-
partisan, its sister organization, Civitas
Action, also headed by De Luca, is orga-
nized under a different part of the tax
code, which allows it to sponsor hard-
hitting election ads, and it did so against
the Democrats in 2010. Chris Fitz-
simon, the founder and director ofNC
Policy Watch, a progressive think tank,
says, "Civitas describes themselves and
their polls as 'nonpartisan,' yet with an-
other arm they're running the most viru-
lent ads against Democrats, and it's the
same people. It's just a shell game."
Some officials at Civitas appear to
shuttle frequently between "nonparti-
san" and partisan roles. In early Febru-
ary, 2008, Jack Hawke, a Republican
political operative in the state, stepped
down as president of the Civitas In-
stitute; by the end of the month, he
had signed on with the campaign of
Pat McCrory, the Republican guberna-
torial candidate, eventually becoming its
manager. After McCrory lost, to Bev-
erly Perdue, Hawke returned to Civitas,
as a senior fellow. In January, 2010,
Hawke signed a form indicating that he
will become treasurer of McCrory' s new
political-action committee, which is
widely seen as the first step toward a re-
match of the 2008 governor's race.
Hawke is currently an unpaid senior fel-
low at Civitas. 'jack Hawke's serial in-
volvement in Civitas and the McCrory
campaign is no accident," Marc Fari-
nella, the Democratic campaign consul-
tant, said. "Pope has used the federal tax
code to create a massive campaign ap-
paratus that is only thinly disguised as a
collection of benign, civic-minded
nonprofit groups." Hawke did not re-
spond to interview requests.
McCrory, meanwhile, has been
getting a boost from the technically
nonpartisan Americans for Prosperity
North Carolina. It has been raising Mc-
Crory's profile by using his voice in
statewide "robo-calls," on issues such as
opposition to Obama's health-care
plan. "Pat McCrory isn't a candidate,"
Woodhouse, the group's director, said.
"Once he becomes one, he wouldn't
have much to do with us. We don't en-
dorse or oppose candidates or express
advocacy. We talk about issues." Yet
the nonprofit' s Web site features a head
100 THE NEW YORKER, OCTOBER 10, 2011
shot of Governor Perdue under the
headline "YETO BEY PERDUE" and text
that reads, "It's time we take back our
government from ARROGANT Bev
Perdue!"
Another Pope-funded organization is
the John William Pope Center for
Higher Education Policy, which broke
off from the Locke Foundation in 2003.
It has pushed for deep budget cuts in the
state's celebrated university system, and
has been a harsh critic of its alleged lib-
eral tilt. Jane Shaw, the center's president,
told me that "a lot of radicals have found
their niche" teaching in the state system.
In order to support the claims of political
bias, the Pope organization has dug up
the voter-registration records of profes-
sors and trustees. The group also spon-
sors visits of conservative speakers on
campuses; one such speaker was Deroy
Murdock, who claims that Saddam Hus-
sein played an important role in the 9/11
attacks.
According to both conservative and
liberal observers, Pope's advocacy net-
work has achieved its greatest influence
over the new Republican majority in the
North Carolina legislature. Hood, the
head of the Locke Foundation, says of
the General Assembly, "A significant
number of our recommendations were
adopted this year. We favored no new
taxes, lifting the cap on charter schools,
cutting spending, as well as dozens of
small-ticket items." Martin Nesbitt, the
Democratic leader, said, "The John
Locke and Civitas foundations put out
road maps for how to change everything,
and the legislature pretty much followed
the script."
Several former staff members at Pope
organizations now have positions of
power in the state legislature. One for-
mer Civitas staffer is the policy adviser
to the House speaker, and a staffer from
a Pope-sponsored legal foundation
serves as the speaker's general counsel.
The Senate clerk was previously the
head of communications at Americans
for Prosperity North Carolina. Several
graduates of an Emerging Leaders fel-
lowship program that Hood runs have
been elected to the General Assembly.
The pro-corporate agenda of the current
legislature is so pronounced that even
conservative Republicans seem sur-
prised. Carter Wrenn, a longtime opera-
tive in the state, said, "Business is hav-
STICKY FINGERS · BY TOBIAS WOLFF
STEALING FIR.E
I n June of1961 I took a bus from
Seattle to La Jolla, California, to
spend the summer with my father
and my older brother, Geoffrey. I was
fifteen, and hadn't laid eyes on either of
them since I was eight. In September
I was to take up a scholarship at the
Hill School, in Pennsylvania, and my
brother, who had just graduated from
Princeton, would leave for a teaching
job at Robert College, in Istanbul.
We'd have a grand summer, my father
promised, catch up on the lost years
and be together again, a family.
Before Geoffrey arrived I was alone
with my father for almost a month. He
and my mother had separated when I
was four, and even before that various
projects had kept him mostly away
from home. I wanted to get to know
him, but he didn't make it easy. During
the day he was warm and funny and
full of stories, but as night came on he
drank and turned sour. He sat on the
edge of my bed in his briefs and
rehearsed old grievances while fiddling
with one of his many gadgets and
doodads, taking it apart, cleaning or
adjusting it, putting it back together.
He loved what we would now
call "accessories," as I did, and do-
especially things that might be
assumed to make up the contents of
a gentleman's portmanteau: silver
cigarette cases and hip flasks; pocket
watches, with their chains and fobs;
leather boxes; gold-nib bed fountain
pens and crystal inkwells; compact
German binoculars; seal rings; ivory
figurines; fragrant briar pipes; tobacco
pouches of the softest leather; silver
penknives and fine lighters.
One of my father's lighters was a
gold Dunhill. I developed a crush on
that lighter, its stippled finish, its heft,
the decisive way the lip snapped open
and shut, its clean, elegant design.
Growing up among Zippo users, 1'd
never seen one like it. I had smoked